A window buck may be positioned in a building form-work (also referred to as a form) and secured to the form to block out (i.e. define) an opening in the form for the installation of windows, doors, or the like. Liquid concrete is subsequently placed in the form and around the buck. The concrete cures to form a building structure (e.g. wall, floor, ceiling, etc.) having an opening defined by the buck.
Some bucks are designed to be reusable and are removed from the building structure after the concrete has cured, leaving behind a concrete surface for mounting a window, door or other building component to be placed in the opening. Other stay-in-place bucks are designed to be left in the concrete after the concrete cures and may provide a frame for mounting the window or door, for example. Conventional bucks are typically made of wood or metal.
There are problems with using conventional stay-in-place window bucks, made of wood or metal, in modular stay-in-place forms. For example, stay-in-place wood bucks may be subject to warping, shrinkage or other problems which may be caused by temperature and/or humidity conditions. Stay-in-place wood bucks are also prone to infestation by insects or other pests. Stay-in-place metal bucks may be subject to corrosion and warping, due to expansion and contraction caused by varying temperature conditions.
In more recent years, some building structures have been fabricated from concrete using modular stay-in-place forms typically made of plastic. Examples of such modular stay-in-place forms include those described in US patent publication No. 2005/0016103 (Piccone) and PCT publication No. WO96/07799 (Sterling). The forms typically include a plurality of wall panels joined edge to edge to form wall segments, and a plurality of support panels which extend between and connect to the wall segments at transversely spaced apart locations. Liquid concrete is placed in the form between the wall segments and fills the interior portion of the form. When the concrete cures, the concrete (together with the form) provide a structural component (e.g. wall, floor, ceiling, etc.) for a building.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,185 (Scott et al.) discloses a plastic window buck for use with insulated concrete form walls. The Scott et al. window buck has various limitations.
There is a general desire to provide modular stay-in-place form systems for forming building openings which may receive windows, doors, vents or other building components.
As discussed above, modular stay-in-place forms made of plastic have been used to fabricate building structures. Such modular stay-in-place forms could be used to fabricate other structures, such as (by way of non-limiting example): tank walls, piping structures, water management structures (e.g. dams, spillways and/or the like) and transportation structures (e.g. bridge supports, highway dividers, subway tunnels and/or the like). Structures fabricated using such modular stay-in-place forms may have edges. There is a general desire to provide form edge systems for such modular stay-in-place form systems which form edges and may be used to form corners, extremities or other edges of building structures or other structures. Building openings and structural openings represent one example of an edge of a structure.